And he's not the scapegoat?
35
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 17
- Clean sheets
- 9
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 1
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
An accident waiting to happen. If he can't turn the form soon he should be sold
I don't particularly rate him as a defender but that was a pretty brutal ball to deal with. Really unlucky where it landed, but we got away with it.
Well I meant in that one particular clip.
Smalling and McNair are in a decent line, Evans is half way to midfield
It really isn't. You can clearly see Smalling is getting in a position to simply clear the ball with ease, except for Evans' header wrong footing him and heading it into the path of their forward.
I would be surprised if Smalling didn't shout and it was ignored; but even if he didn't Evans misreads the flight of the ball completely and has no idea about what was going on around him. A good defender has a picture of the situation and simply leaves it for Smalling to deal with, or puts themselves in a position to deal with it in the first place.
For me it was similar to defenders that just stick a leg out and end up deflecting a tame shot away from the keeper into their own goal. Yes you can brush it aside and hide behind "bad luck" but the fact is that it's actually poor decision making. Saying that he wasn't the only one, McNair was dreadful and Smalling was mediocre as well.
However Evans has been incredibly fortunate not to has cost us 5-6 points this season; he seems to gift the opposition a golden opportunity once every 150-200 minutes, which is unacceptable.
Evans knows what's around him. He's a couple of yards away from the attacker. He doesn't need to drop into the box and have 3 defenders covering the lone striker. Smalling or McNair should be much closer to the attacker
Which is exactly what he did against Stoke when Shaw cleared the ball over the bar, and yet somehow it was still his fault and he obviously got slated for it on here.
You're over complicating it to try and believe that Evans is at fault (no one is at fault, it's football, sometimes these things happen). You're forgetting that this situation happened in real time, from the time the ball left the attackers boot til it got to Evans is so little, I don't care what Smalling says or doesn't say, it's a natural reaction from Evans to try and get something on the ball. If he thinks he can head it, he will try for it, that's nothing to do with ability, it's nothing to do with reading the game, it's nothing to do with coaching etc it's pure natural instinct. You and I would have done the same thing, it's just a reaction when the ball comes from that distance.
If you slow everything down, all your points have grounds. However, football is played at normal speed and that is extremely quick on the ground compared to the TV, so when you break everything down like you have, well you have just wasted both our time.
The difference against Stoke was that he could have done exactly what Shaw eventually did, head it out of play. Leaving it in that instance merely complicated the issue and potentially gave the opposition a chance. There is a big difference between Option A being gifting the opposition a chance and Option B being to leave it for your defensive partner; versus Option A being to comfortably clear it or Option B being leave it for someone else to have a more difficult job clearing it.
The first scenario is smart defending, the second is cowardice.
If that's the case then almost no one ever makes a mistake. If a striker fluffs a shot and it's clearly going wide, natural instinct tells a defender to try and get a boot on it. If it ends up in his own net, bad luck. If a defender is in a poor position or misreads a cross, just bad luck. Everything happens quickly on a Football field, but if you lose your man at a corner, you've screwed up (just as our other defenders did vs Stoke); likewise if you play a blind back-pass, put yourself in a poor position or misread a situation, at the top level it's screwing up.
The fact is there are tiny margins in Football. Evans flick on was completely blind and wasn't just bad luck; it was bad positioning and a failure to recognise that his defensive partner had the situation covered, and ultimately we could have been out of the FA Cup because of it. Likewise we'd have lost to Stoke if Diouf put away his chance. Against Liverpool they could have gotten back in the game if Sterling doesn't fluff a simple chance. I think there was another occasion earlier in the season where he put a striker through as well.
Admittedly it's harsh to blame Evans; however do we settle for having defenders who constantly made poor decisions that lead to this bad luck? Or do we call them out on it and aspire to the standard that Bruce, Pallister, Stam, Ferdinand, Vidic etc have set in the past? If McNair was a 27 year old experienced defender with over 200 top level caps his thread would be similarly negative.
Yep, I have to agree with Getsme here. I don't think Evans was to blame here. He should have tried to get his head on the ball there, you can't assume your fellow defenders are going to bail you out. He was very unlucky that it dropped to their lad.
The lengths some go to to defend Jonny is amusing. As soon as LGV gets the defenders he wants this guy will be shipped out, simply isn't up to the standard we want to reach.
I agree with this too, that he's not good enough, and will be shipped out.
I don't think it's so much in defence of his performance, more so defending him from the absolute avalanche of abuse he cops because he isn't world class.
I have a lot of time for him, I'm the first to admit we need to invest in new defenders but I don't understand the abusing of players like Evans.
I have a lot of time for him, I'm the first to admit we need to invest in new defenders but I don't understand the abusing of players like Evans.
Dunno how anyone can look at that gif and single Evans out for criticism. Which is - obviously - not to say he couldn't have done better. He did mistime his jump. However, it was a difficult clearance for him to make and a simple hoof for Smalling if he'd been a bit more positive and let Evans know it was his ball. If he'd heard a shout from his defensive partner there's no way Evans would have tried to head that ball. Playing in front of a few thousand people there's simply no excuse for not making yourself heard. Dreadful lack of communication from the one defender with a clear picture of everything that's happening. Reminds me of the moment in that Leicester game which made Rooney lose his shit. Smalling and Blind both competing for the same header. Speak up ffs.
Anyway, that header is the least of our problems. Smalling and McNair can see the line being held by Evans and Blackett yet, for some bizarre reason, are holding their own line - about 5 yards further back. Which is crappy defending, before you even get into the fact that they've managed to mark neither of the Yeovil players in the box. Smalling has left the striker completely free on the 6 yard box and McNairis is at least 10 yards away from the bloke he should be marking, who is standing in acres of space at the far post. Although, to be fair, he's drawn out of position by Smalling's brainfart.
To be honest, we should be past the point of blaming individuals by now. Our defensive woes are systemic. Nobody seems to have the faintest idea what they're supposed to be doing. This is most apparent in a 352 but the gif above was during the second half, with a more conventional back four. And our defensive shape is still abysmal. We spend so much of the season playing a formation that confuses the shit out of everyone, they're still addled when they revert to a formation that''s supposed to be familiar!
If you ask me, there's far too much emphasis on the quality of individual defenders this season and not enough on the defensive coaching, which can make any back four look more than the sum of their parts. I really hope Van Gaal's "philosophy" pays attention to the basics of defending as a unit and we'll see long term benefits in the latter half of this season. Because up until now, we've been an absolute fecking shambles.
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Indeed and being perma camped in this thread defending the guy is bordering on the pathological.
He's one more high profile mistake away from ending his United career I reckon. As it stands he's a dead man walking United wise.
This.
For me I dont slam Evans for their chance yesterday really. Its just his overall performances this year, he could if performing like he used to 3 yrs back have stamped his place as our first choice CB. And been a leader in the back line with probably the most experience out of the lot. BUT he looks shakey and average. He's lost a yrd and reading of play is poor, his range of passing looks weaker and just all round isnt as sure as he used to be. But as I mentioned before only Rio or Vidic could tell you how much they talked him through games, maybe he needs a leader next to him, which we dont have.
Thats my criticism just that if he was playing at a similar level as to how he used to, he'd be our first choice.
Hope he refinds this form, as he's a long way from being 'past it'.
Thats my criticism just that if he was playing at a similar level as to how he used to, he'd be our first choice.
Hope he refinds this form, as he's a long way from being 'past it'.
I don't think the header yesterday was a real howler; certainly not his worst mistake in recent weeks. However, watching the gif makes me believe that it wasn't his ball to head anyway. Our defenders should know what everyone else is doing so, as Evans was tracking the run of the person in front of him, he should have the belief and understanding that his partner would be covering off any more attacking players making a run in behind.
Individual errors are infuriating but most of our problems at the back seem to be coming from a complete lack of confidence / trust. They panic and make stupid decisions and, whilst that is acceptable with the kids still learning their trade, Evans won't be at the club much longer if he can't display the skills that he should have picked up in abundance from Rio and Vidic for the first decade of his professional career. He should be the one keeping things together at the back but he looks miles away from that at the moment unfortunately.
Individual errors are infuriating but most of our problems at the back seem to be coming from a complete lack of confidence / trust. They panic and make stupid decisions and, whilst that is acceptable with the kids still learning their trade, Evans won't be at the club much longer if he can't display the skills that he should have picked up in abundance from Rio and Vidic for the first decade of his professional career. He should be the one keeping things together at the back but he looks miles away from that at the moment unfortunately.
That our defenders cannot fathom defending or switch between 3-5-2 and 4-3-3/4-4-2 is not done really - its been a good 4 months now, and they should have adapted to it nicely by now. And its not that no one has adapted to the system - Phil Jones, Valencia, Young certainly have.
As for LVG paying attention to defending as a unit, well thats the first thing he said when he was asked about the quality of his defenders - an emphasis on organisation. He said that after the game with Spurs as well:
Its pertinent to note how easily his Holland players, especially defenders were able to adapt/switch between the systems, while quite a few of our players are not able to do so - to my mind, a fair bit of blame of the blame has to go to individual defenders as well.
At the age of 27, Jonny Evans is at the peak of his powers.
That doesn't mean that he should be abused for every bloody single mistake, some of them not even his mistakes.
Big blow for Evans today, getting dropped for a midfielder who had been injured for a while and then Blackett getting on before him. Did Evans have a slight knock or something or is the writing on the wall for him?
Dont rate him but still miles better than Blackett and should start. Want to see him play in a 4 man defence, all our defenders have looked better in that system.
Why didn't he come on for Shaw? I understand that he hasn't been in good form at all (and I am one of the ones who have been harsh on him) but all the three older CBs are still way ahead of Blackett and McNair.
As bad as he is, he's still better then Blacket (who is woeful).
No, he's not. There's not a single defender in the league who's been as shit as Evans has been this season. THat's one of the few things LVG did get right yesterday - not rewarding his shit performances with even more appearances.
In another thread there are comments from LvG saying Rojo is a fixture in his main starting line-up, couple that with Blackett being chosen as the LCB sub today and Evans is looking like he'll be the one to make room if we can get a top CB in this window.
Q.P.R. 0:2 Man Utd
How many times has de Gea saved his brainfarts? Useless player.
We need a serious overhaul of the defence. Surely LvG can see such a simple thing?
Absolute teapot.
He is consistent in making mistakes every game.
By now I feel like it's a decent performance for his standards if he only gives away 1 clear cut chance in a game
He's hardly top half standard at this point, that's how far he's regressed.
He's hardly top half standard at this point, that's how far he's regressed.
I think the writing is on the wall for him. He has totally folded under the pressure of being the senior defender at the club.
The word was that Van Gaal thought that he was the pick of the defenders when he first joined. I think that is because Johnny is the best on the ball. It is a shame that all goes to pot when he is under pressure.
The word was that Van Gaal thought that he was the pick of the defenders when he first joined. I think that is because Johnny is the best on the ball. It is a shame that all goes to pot when he is under pressure.
To think people were bemoaning his absence in the last game. He's complete wank.
Yep, I'm about finished with him now. Should be sold in the summer, without doubt.
All three centre backs weren't very good but today was a pretty standard Evans performance from what he's shown this season. Needs to go and is running out of games to change my mind.
Utterly gormless.....
Wilson said he went off injured. I shudder to think he might have played the full 90 and we'd have kept the three at the back if not for that injury